Next, take two half-crackers and cut off about 1/2 inch from the edge. I like to cut them together like this so they'll be the same size. These will be the sides of your houses.

The royal icing should be this consistency for making houses.

Time to make royal icing. The consistency of your icing is the whole key to success for this project. Here's a picture of what it looks like when it's ready-this is called "stiff peak" stage. Feel free to add more powdered sugar to the recipe I've linked above until it reaches this consistency.

Load some icing into a pastry bag. You can use a decorative star tip or a round tip, but it should be a medium size, so you can get at least a 3/8-inch-thick stream of icing from it. Cover the remainder of the icing with plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil to create a surface for assembling your houses.

Pipe icing along one side of the base. Press the front piece into the icing.

Time to assemble houses! Place one full cracker on the cookie sheet. Pipe icing along one edge, as shown. Press one of the peaked crackers into this strip of icing.

Pipe icing along the base and side. Press a side piece into the icing.

Next, pipe more icing along the inside of the front cracker and along the base cracker. Press one of the small side pieces into this icing.

(This might be a good time to mention that because graham crackers are so lightweight, they should hold these upright positions just fine-if your icing is stiff enough, nothing should fall over.)

Repeat that last step on the other side of the house. And don't worry if your icing looks a little sloppy at this point-we'll fix that later.

Pipe icing along the remaining edges of the house.

Pipe along the remaining three edges at the back of the house.

Press the back to the house. Let it sit for 30 minutes while the icing cures.

EchoLin writes: I'm not good at cook, but i'm a good taster, i remember every good things i have ate before. I can image that how i miss the taste when i eat food like this one .
Posted: 3:05 am on March 7th

DreamyDahlia writes: I tackled the real thing...a gingerbread house...this year. These look cuter, easier and very festive! I think a cookie house village is in my 2013 Christmas future.
Posted: 8:50 pm on January 16th

Nodan writes: It is delicious and beautiful! When I see your blog, I swallowed my saliva.Huh.
Posted: 3:02 am on January 16th

candycandycandy writes: At my house, we make gingerbread houses annually with the kids. Lately though, since the Christmas season has become so busy, we started making Halloween houses instead. These are adorable; we use ghost peeps, gummi spiders, and all sorts of black and orange candy. For anyone who's interested, we usually get our candy from this site which saves us quite a bit of money.

http://www.candyfavorites.com
Posted: 11:04 am on May 17th

TeacherTeacher writes: Perfect timing for this post. We may graham cracker houses each year, this gives me some new ideas for our creations. I had never thought of adding a door like that. One of our favorites is using unwrapped tootsie rolls stacked up by the side of the house to look like a wood pile. With a bit of icing dripping down, these look like snowy logs.
Posted: 1:05 pm on December 23rd

ErinBried writes: These little houses are adorable. I'm overwhelmed thinking of a creating a ginberbread house, but using this method I could make a entire village (that my nephews would dismantle waayy too quickly). Thanks much for these beautiful instructions. Merry Christmas!
Posted: 9:17 pm on December 22nd

Average_Jane_Crafter writes: This is *awesome* Diane! I've seen versions of gingerbread villages (many thanks to you!) from elaborate set ups to simple graham cracker ones. I love these, though, because it's kind of in the middle. Still simple, but in an elaborate enough way that makes it special. And the picture of the icing peaks is like art! :)
Posted: 11:45 pm on December 6th